Cath

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar 'Mdalak

Paxopolis Simulated Training Centre

---

Though he had been helpful when left alone, Jurna’s response to the ambush was less than ideal. He did listen to Tar’s warning and turn around, but the two shots he fired with his carbine were not enough to break the Brute’s shields. At such close range, he would have been better off striking the Brute with the weapon. Instead, he took the full force of a mauler shot that immediately breached his shields, which was followed quickly by a strike to his head with the mauler’s blade. Especially when wielded by a Brute, it was easily enough to kill, which was precisely Jurna’s fate for this scenario.

Ryssa, at least, was faring somewhat better. The stalker he was fighting seemed intent on tearing the Sangheili apart with his bare hands, but Ryssa thought quickly enough to turn his needler around and jam the needles straight into the Brute’s neck. It was another stalker brought down, though Ryssa was still unshielded and vulnerable.

Tar cried in anguish as Jurna's limp body fell to the floor. She grabbed a red plasma rifle from the severed hand of a Brute lying next to her and fired it at Jurna's killer. The half shielded Brute retreated back into the hallway.

"Put down your weapons! Or the humans die!" A gravelly voice boomed from the front of the room.

Tar peered over the top of the table and saw two Brutes, camo disabled, pointing spikers in the direction of her and the recruits. Each of them held a member of the Command centre staff in front of them.

Behind these two Stalkers, another Brute, also visible, was fiddling with one of the master control panels. Red lights began flashing in the command room, and one of the screens featured a plaintive PROXIMITY WARNING sign.

Of the two remaining recruits, Ryssa was the one to act. He ducked down quickly behind the barricade before even retrieving his needler from the Brute’s neck to allow the chance for his shields to recharge. Though, the warning on one of the screens meant he would not have time to wait. They had to act quickly. In this case, Ryssa did not need to hesitate nor look to others for direction. He already knew his instructions, based on the mission parameters. Directives from both the UNSC and Swords were actually similar in this respect: the mission had priority. Hostages were meant to be saved if possible, but ultimately, unless the hostages in danger were of critical importance themselves, the fate of the colony meant more than any individuals. For this scenario, stopping the sabotage to save the colony was the objective. Drawing his storm rifle, Ryssa braced it on top of the barricade and opened fire into the back of the Brute at the console.

Both the Brutes up front snarled in unison, firing their spikers at Ryssa. The Stalker at the console picked up his weapon and turned around, but didn't get any shots of. Tar jumped up, waves of pain crashing against the back of her eyeballs, and joined her fire to Ryssa's. The Brute at the back promptly melted to the console.

Seeing all was lost, the two Brutes up front cracked the skulls of their hostages, discarding them on the floor. Sharing a quick look, they began running at Tar, bodies low to the ground in berserk mode, jumping through the hologram of Sarcophagus.

Tar had encountered this particular move lots of times before. She tried to find a stable platform on her bleeding foot while they closed. Finally, satisfied she wouldn't fall over from the first strike, she drew her energy sword.

Greeting them with a bloodthirsty roar, Tar used the first Brute's momentum against him. As he leapt forward, she impaled him on her sword, lifted him clean over her head and dumped him behind her. She screamed in pain as her foot took all the extra weight.

Pirouetting clumsily to greet the second attacker, Tar launched her sword at him as he jumped from the hologram plinth, arms ready to crush her. It connected meatily with his torso in mid air, and the Brute clattered to the floor just in front of her. Tar pulled out her Mauler and shot them both in the head, just to be sure.

"Ryssa, help me turn this off. Daha, sweep and secure the room."

Though he certainly heard the two Brutes rushing their position, Daha was in no position to help. After Jurna’s death, Daha looked back into the hall to cover their flank. With a focused eye, it did not take him long to spot enough of a shimmer for him to act upon. He did not bother charging his plasma pistol, instead firing both it and the plasma rifle at slightly different positions to try and reveal the stalker.

Fortunately, one of the plasma bolts found its mark and disrupted the cloak. From there, he did nothing particularly special nor complex. He simply overwhelmed the Brute with plasma fire from both weapons. Daha’s shields were half-drained from a mauler shot at medium distance, but the Brute fell long before it could do any more damage.

With the hostile forces neutralized, the remainder of the simulation was fairly simple to complete. It was simply a matter of reactivating the defenses the stalkers had disabled, namely the settlement’s anti-air defenses. It was a task that required some knowledge of the Human computer systems, but they had been taught to do it.

Once the scenario had been completed, the team quickly filed out of the simulator to open it up for use by the next group waiting. The four recruits, now reunited, stood together at attention once again. Strictly speaking, the scenario had been completed successfully, with the primary objective fulfilled. The secondary objective to rescue hostages had failed, but that was, by the scenario’s own description, considered a difficult objective. What was of more concern to the recruits was the fact that they had performed far from flawlessly. Two of their number had died, and they made some obvious mistakes.

Tar looked at each of them in turn to gauge their feelings before asking: “Who would like to go first and explain how we did?” She was interested to hear their take on what had just happened. Even the Major, who would’ve been able to watch the simulation unfold even after his death.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar 'Mdalak

Paxopolis Simulated Training Centre

---

It was hard to say if their volley of grenades had led to any actual kills. Plasma grenades were reasonably easy to avoid if they were not stuck to a target. However, the chain of explosion would, at the very least, disrupt the Brutes’ defensive positioning. Daha was the first in behind Tar, his plasma pistol already overcharged. The cluster of plasma detonations had at least partially revealed multiple cloaked Brutes, allowing him to quickly acquire a target as he moved in. Just as before, he fired the overcharged shot, then followed up with a burst of plasma rifle fire.

Ryssa entered firing his needler so that he could focus more on movement than aiming. Particularly if they were outnumbered, he at least knew that he would need to get to cover quickly. It was hard for him to judge quickly which cover would hold up under fire, but he moved to try and duck down behind one of the elevated consoles to their left.

Jurna did move when ordered, though not actually entirely into the room itself. He ended up staying back in the doorway, though there was some advantage to his hesitation. The others were taking more of the attention of the Brutes, and as it turned out, Jurna was actually a rather good shot with his carbine when not under pressure. He landed a headshot on the Brute Daha had shot with his pistol right away, then quickly transferred his aim to the next target.

Tar found the Brutes had been pushed back from their hastily constructed barrier at the chokepoint, so she took cover on the other side of it and peeked over. She counted four Stalkers out in the open close by, one of which had just got his head practically severed by Jurna’s carbine round. They looked stunned by the massive plasma blast; some were only just getting up from the floor where they’d flung themselves.

Seeing a golden opportunity, Tar pushed the advantage. Spotting a weak link in the barricade, she savagely kicked a heavy metal table. It flew off the pile, smashing into the closest Brute and opening a path for Tar to run through. Moving with big strides and an open stance, she took a wide swipe at the reeling Stalker with her sword. The blade caught his left hand and leg as he tried to move away, severing them both.

With her other hand, Tar quickly threw a fire grenade at the next Stalker, who was unloading his Spiker into her shield. The grenade crashed into his midsection, blossoming into a fireball that enveloped his whole body. Tar heard his shield die and then smelled burning flesh. The Brute fell to his knees, trying to pat the fire out. Tar pulled out her Mauler and fired a slug at him and the other Brute on the floor before diving behind the same metal table, heavy plasma fire evaporated her shield. Two spikes thudded into a foot she couldn’t quite hide, making Tar yell out in pain.

It was easy to see that Tar needed assistance, though Ryssa was not in a position to help. His needler had supercombined a Brute as he rushed to cover, but the cover he had chosen was not the most solid. The barricades the stalkers had erected would have been a better choice. Plasma fire from the other side of the console burned through and struck his shields, forcing him to evade. He tried dashing to a barricade, but did not see the invisible Brute that was close enough to intercept him. Suddenly, he was struck in the head by the blunt underside of a plasma rifle. The remainder of his shields did absorb much of the impact, but they were easily broken by the Brute’s raw strength. Though, Ryssa was easily strong enough to do the same in return. The stalker had revealed himself, so Ryssa struck back with the underside of his needler. Though not a match for the Brute physically, Ryssa could still break the shields of the powered armor. Both were quickly rendered vulnerable.

Daha had found better cover initially, and was better able to help Tar. Seeing the effect Jurna could have firing from a distance, Daha could adapt to take advantage of that. While his plasma pistol started to charge, he opened fire with his plasma rifle on the Brute that had shot Tar. Stalkers did not have strong shields, so it took only a short burst of plasma to break through them. By the time the Brute was exposed, Daha’s plasma pistol was once again overcharged. However, instead of focusing only on a single target, he instead shifted his aim to the next closest Brute to strip him of his shields with his pistol.

Jurna was not necessarily intentionally cooperating with Daha, but he was aiming for the most vulnerable opponents within his line of sight. His first shot found the head of the Brute that had wounded Tar. The second Brute moved more quickly as he tried to get out of the line of fire, but Jurna was able to land three consecutive shots to center mass to neutralize him.

Tar slithered further behind the table as her shields began recharging. Grimacing with pain, she pulled the spikes out of her foot. They sizzled in her hand before she dropped them on the floor. She checked around for her team; they were fighting hard, shooting over her prone form. She began motioning for Jurna to move up to the barricade when she noticed a shimmer moving rapidly up behind him.

"Jurna, behind you!" Tar called out, pointing.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar 'Mdalak

Paxopolis Simulated Training Centre

---

The other recruits gave anguished cries upon seeing one of their number die. Regardless of how they felt about him, Sangheili soldiers were generally conditioned to mourn fallen brothers.

Tar looked about in confusion at the sound, still straddling the disemboweled Brute while her vision returned "What's happening?" She asked. “Zadu is dead!” Jurna exclaimed, not quite believing the simulation would kill the Major in such a graphic style. Tar swore throatily and crawled back behind the holo-consoles for cover.

The Mauler flash had only temporarily disabled her; after a few more seconds she could see almost normally except for floating dots in her right eye. She looked around and quickly found the Major’s body. Moving her attention back to identifying hostiles, she could see two half-visible Stalkers running toward the double doors at the back of the office space.

“See our foe run!” Ryssa roared, firing his needler at them even as they moved out of his effective range. “They go to warn the others. After them!” He commanded, falling back into his assigned role as point.

As one, the recruits surged forward while firing their weapons. Tar lagged slightly behind them, making sure she could see no further shimmers in the room. If there had been any Brute forces left, the recruits would’ve fallen straight into another feint by the enemy. Fortunately, she could see no further threats sneaking up behind them. The two Brutes retreating must have been the runt of the litter who were assigned to block their exit way.

Tar broke into a jog to keep in line with her recruits, smashing the radar jammer with her foot as she passed. It seems the recruits had forgotten all about it in their eagerness to avenge the Major.

As they reached the double doors that the Brutes had just exited from, an automated voice sounded over the building tannoy. “Sector Two point defense and air-to-surface targeting disabled through executive override. Security personnel, please report to the command centre.”

The fact that two of the stalkers had escaped behind them was, even to the recruits, a cause for concern. They could reappear and flank them at any time, but if the automated message was any indication, they did not have the time to properly clear their flank. They would just have to keep pressing on and watch their backs.

The command center was one floor up, and at the very least, they did not encounter any resistance on the way up the stairs or through the hall. However, the command center itself, unfortunately for the recruits, was meant to be defensible. It was located in an interior room, with only one entrance. The Brutes had not had time to set up exterior defenses outside the command center, but they would still have to push through a choke point to enter the room itself.

The recruits approached just outside the heavy, sliding door to the command center, though Ryssa hesitated to give the order to attack. They could see no movement on their motion trackers; the Brutes were certainly waiting in ambush on the other side. “How should we attack, commander?” Ryssa asked.

Tar, who was covering the rear again, had prepared for this question. Activating her wrist interface, she put a small 3D model of the command room in the area in front of them. "It is semicircular, with screens at the front and a hologram of Sarcophagus in the middle. Consoles face the middle from a slightly raised platform around the curved edge. The commander's desk is right at the front. There's a small neck through this door where they may have set up a barricade. We can use grenades to show confusion. From there, we can flank and crush them. Be wary; they may have hostages. Any questions?

There was silence from the recruits. Tar’s explanation was simple enough, so even if they had any doubts, the recruits would trust Tar’s experience.

"Jurna, get the door. You two, form up on me."

Tar had toyed with the idea of letting Ryssa lead this clearance in their journey up to this sliding door. But she'd decided she wanted to win this simulation. And as promising as some of the recruits actions were, their chances of success without Tar at point were not good.
Jurna nodded, then went to the keypad on the right hand side of the door. They had the security codes to override the lock, which he typed in quickly. Though, he would wait until the others were ready to enter it. Daha formed up on the wall just behind Tar, holstering his plasma rifle on his side and taking a plasma grenade in his hand. Ryssa followed suit as well, grabbing a grenade in his off hand once he made sure his needler was fully loaded. With all in position, they just waited on Tar’s signal to begin.

Tar positioned herself so she could throw something through the partially opened door without exposing herself. As there wasn't enough room to stack perpendicular to the door, they were hugging the wall to the left as close as they could. One advantage of this is all of them could throw grenades at the same time. From her belt, she took both of her plasma grenades and held them ready.

When she was sure they were as ready as possible, she nodded to Jurna on the opposite wall. After he input the code the door began opening. When it had opened about a metre, Tar threw one grenade through as hard as she could without looking, and then the other. She saw the recruits' grenades sail over her shoulder and disappear into the doorway.

In the long, tense couple of seconds before detonation, Tar heard Brutes shouting and the clatter of footsteps from twenty metres away. Then all the grenades erupted together. The sound was of monstrous energy tearing apart metal, and it filled their ears and shook the floor beneath them.

Taking a deep breath, Tar raised her Mauler and pushed into the room, with her recruits (hopefully) right behind.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar 'Mdalak

Paxopolis Simulated Training Centre

---

“Take cover right!” Tar shouted, assuming control just as a barrage of plasma fire erupted from several points around the large room. They waded through the flames into a partitioned area with a semi-circle of holo consoles. Tar took several hits to her shield from the Stalkers guarding the stairway before leaping behind one of the consoles. The Brute weapons punched holes in the plastic room dividers as they lost line of sight on her.

Tar peeked over the top of her cover. She counted at least four Stalkers slowly approaching their position, plus the two guarding the stairway. Their camouflage slipped every time they fired their weapons, revealing a cautious, calculated advance. Tar estimated they were each twenty feet apart, progressing down the open spaces between work areas.

In this case, not a single recruit so much as hesitated in following Tar’s order. The Major broke straight through the partition, with the others following just behind. Each moved into whatever cover they could find, as quickly as they could. The room dividers could break line of sight, though there was no weapon they would actually stop. Plasma fire and spikers ripped through them with ease, just without as much accuracy.

Ryssa, with his shields already damaged from his brush with the flames and few stray plasma rounds, dove behind the holo-consoles. They were at least somewhat more sturdy than most of the other parts of the office. His response to being pinned was actually reasonably effective, considering his options, even if it was a strategy one might have learned from an Unggoy. He did not peer out from cover to return fire, but rather grabbed his needler and lifted it up just high enough to fire over the console, roughly in the direction that one of the Brutes was firing from. He did not need to be accurate; as long as the needler was pointing in mostly the right direction, its needles would find a target.

When the attack had began, Jurna had fired four shots with surprisingly good accuracy. He tracked the shimmer he had seen and, out of his four shots, hit three to break the Brute’s powered armor. However, once his own shields started taking damage, he did not follow through to make the kill. He ran with the others into the side room and, like Ryssa, took cover behind the consoles. Though, unlike the other recruit, he did not return fire from his position. He hid as best as he could, and intended to continue doing so until his shields were fully recharged.

With the partitions at least stopping accurate fire, the Major took a moment to scan the room they had hastily entered. Given how quickly they had been forced to move, there was no reason to believe they had moved to safety. And indeed, at this range, his eyes were sharp enough to spot at least two shimmers moving carefully closer to Jurna and Tar. Drawing his energy sword, the Major sprinted for the nearest stalker. “Brutes behind us!” He shouted.

Reacting instantly, Tar jumped up, grabbed her energy sword from its mount on her left thigh, activated it and blindly slashed it through the air behind her in one fluid motion. The dual tips of her sword grazed the armour of a Stalker; the room lit up with blue light as his shield protected his neck from being slit.

Regaining her balance, Tar raised her right hand and fired a round from her Mauler into the same shield, breaking it completely. At the same time, she watched the Stalker fire their Mauler at her face. She was momentarily blinded as the slug exploded right in front of her eyes, and she felt her shield go offline with a jolt.

Tar let out an angry roar and leapt forward, sword poised. She made impact with…something, and clattered to the floor with it before stabbing it with her weapon multiple times.

The Major’s blade quickly found its mark on the nearest stalker. The Brute’s active camouflage may have rendered it only a shimmer in the air, but a wide arc with his blade in front of him could reach easily over two and a half meters in front of him, and the sword itself could cut through even a starship’s armor with ease. The Brute was quite simply bisected.

There had only been two of the cloaked Brutes in the room they had ran into, but the Major had no intent of staying put and holding out. Though his shields were damaged, he still preferred aggression. “Attack with me! These mongrels are nothing to us!” He shouted. Off on their right flank, on the other side of a thin wall, he could hear movement, which was all he needed to strike. With a frenzied roar as his battle cry, he broke straight through the wall in a charge. A diagonal swing of his sword and another stalker was cut in two. This time, however, the Brute was not without assistance. Just to his left, another Brute fired his mauler, both revealing himself, and stripping away the Major’s shields. He was close enough that the Major could react quickly and impale him through the chest with his blade, but there were still more Brutes farther away, and the Major was now clearly in their line of sight.

Ryssa had intended to follow the Major’s instruction. Based on the sound of a supercombine explosion beyond the wall he had been firing through, his needles had found a target, but the Brutes were not unintelligent. Though they could not see him, they could roughly determine where he was firing from when they saw the needles, so Ryssa found himself pinned by a volley of plasma and spiker fire. His shields took a stray hit, so they were not yet recharging, and he could not move to assist the Major.

Jurna had an angle from which he could help at range, but his shields were charging and he still had no intention of revealing himself until they were full.

Daha was the farthest from the Major, and the closest to Tar, and it was she who he intended to help. He charged his plasma pistol, firing the overcharged bolt at a stalker who had a clear line of sight onto Tar. The shot broke the Brute’s powered armor immediately, allowing his follow-up shots from his plasma rifle to deal potentially deadly damage.

Ultimately, there was no help that would come for the Major in time to save him. A burst of spiker fire from a more distant stalker struck his unshielded chest and neck, and his armor was not enough to protect against the volley. The red plating of his armor was stained purple by his blood. Simulated as it might have been, his death was still convincing. The Major had successfully relieved most of the pressure from their right flank, but at the cost of his life.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar 'Mdalak

Paxopolis Simulated Training Centre

---

The Major grunted dismissively at Jurna. He did have more experience to recognize what was actually happening. “No, fool. They’re jamming our motion trackers. Rely on your own two eyes, not your sensors.”

While the team had stopped, Tar was turned and covering the bottom of the stars with her Mauler. "Make a decision, recruit. Get us off this stairway." She said gruffly over comms.

Again, Tar’s instruction quickly set Ryssa into motion. “Move ahead. Carefully. Daha, cover our flank.” He instructed, prompting the generally silent Sangheili to give a brief acknowledgement, then follow with his gaze directed behind them.

The next floor mostly consisted of a large, open plan office space. A poorly lit walkway ahead of them cut through arrangements of workstations and holographic screens on either side. Flimsy plastic room dividers offered a degree of privacy for the worker bees in this area. In the middle of the room were a set of meeting rooms, partitioned by floor to ceiling plate glass.

Even without night vision, the team could see a faint red glow reflecting on the ceiling near the centre of the office space. Tar suspected Ryssa and The Major knew what it meant, but neither immediately acknowledged it so she focused the team’s attention.
"That's the Brute radar jammer on the floor over there. We need to destroy it."

Ryssa was quick to follow Tar’s instruction and gesture to them to move forward, but the Major was hesitant. He stayed in place, raising up his storm rifle and scanning his surroundings with his gaze. “Wait. If the jammer is here, then so too are the Brutes.”

Each of the recruits raised their weapons in turn, looking in different directions all around them. Beyond the team itself, the whole floor seemed to be but stillness and silence. The Jiralhanae attack was meant to have taken place at night, so there were no bodies of workers here, and the offices seemed to be undisturbed.

There was no shattered glass, broken doors, or overturned tables, just…silence. In that environment, it was easy to become acutely aware of every small sound that could be heard: the tapping of their armored boots against the hard floor each time they shifted their feet, the slight stretching and compression of their undersuits each time they turned their heads or sufficiently moved a muscle, and even the breaths they took.

Among the recruits, it was actually Jurna’s eyes that were sharp enough to notice a slight shimmer through the glass on the far side of one of the meeting rooms. He was not sure of what he saw, nor how he should react, but he did nevertheless point his carbine directly at it.
The shimmer seemed to react to this, moving abruptly towards the edge of the plate glass wall and into the open.

Tar, who was covering the rear, detected a very faint haze moving between them and the stairway they had just ascended, cutting them off. “They’re behind us.” She reported, raising her Mauler even though they were out of its effective range. “It’s a tra-”.

Before she could finish, a fire bomb flew past her visor and landed right in the middle of the group. Flames exploded outward into a pool on the floor, lapping at the shields of Ryssa, the Major and Daha, who were up front.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar 'Mdalak

Paxopolis Simulated Training Centre

Tar groped desperately around with her right hand for her Mauler, but it had skittered away into the gloom. So instead, Tar pulled her energy sword from his mount on her left thigh, activated it and thrust it into the Stalker’s abdomen.

He let out a furious roar and tried to dismount her. Tar wrapped her right arm around the Brute’s neck and stabbed him four more times in the stomach with her left. The force of her last blow pushed his now limp body off to the side, where he lay still.

Tar quickly rose to her feet and holstered her sword. The recruits had entered the room and were staring at her. Tar spotted her Mauler lying under a desk and picked it up.

Satisfied all her gear was together, she quickly strode to where Ryssa stood and shoved him against a wall.

“One of your teammates just died. When I show you tactics I expect you to use them. We always check corners and clear rooms. Fail me again and you’ll do this simulation alone, Is that clear?”

“Yes, Commander!” Ryssa replied, almost on reflex, though he still frantically looked around with some confusion after taking a more literal interpretation of her reprimand. He had seen the tail end of the short fight, but from what he could see, everyone around him was still alive.

“Good.” Tar grabbed the recruit and shoved him towards the doorway. “Take point.” The Major, stood slightly outside the doorway, snarled and turned away.

Ryssa followed his orders to the letter and took point, this time making sure to clear the rooms they passed on the way forward. It seemed, at the very least, that Tar’s harsh reminder was enough to get him to pay more attention to what he was doing and follow his training.

Not only did he continue checking his corners, but he did not need to be told where to go once they reached the junction in the hallway. Data centers, or the commanders themselves, were the most likely target of an attack like this, both of which took them down the left hallway.

As the team headed up the stairs to the next floor, there was a spike of activity on their sensors. All at once, each of their motion trackers started showing multiple red dots, on their level as well as above and below, moving frantically all around them.

Jurna immediately raised his carbine and pointed it ahead at the top of the stairs above, though quickly turned around to point it back the way they came. “They’re surrounding us!” He shouted, unsure of where he should be focusing his attention.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar 'Mdalak

Paxopolis Simulated Training Centre

Just as he was ordered, Ryssa was the one to take the lead, storm rifle in hand with a needler at his side. “Move forward.” He said aloud through their comms to those behind him. He had neglected to give any specific instruction as to the order in which they should move, so it was the Major that was just behind him. He wielded a storm rifle as well, with an energy sword at his side. Jurna, as he always did when given the choice, was armed with a carbine and needler, while the silent Sangheili just in front of Tar held a plasma rifle in his right hand, and a plasma pistol in the left.

Ryssa moved straight ahead down the hall towards the fork at the end of the corridor. He, and the rest of the recruits, had night vision enabled, though that by itself would not reveal stalkers using active camouflage. As they moved, he was paying more attention to his motion tracker than he was his own eyes, and he did not order to clear the side rooms as they passed them by.

The recruits obviously hadn’t absorbed the room clearing exercise Tar had put them through two days ago in one of Paxopolis’ crowded storage facilities. She shook her head - not a good start.

They quietly passed two doorways, which Tar looked through as a reflex. She saw base workers slumped over the workstations, their seats and the floor covered in blood. The Brutes hadn’t even given them a chance to fight back.

Footsteps, fast approaching from another doorway to her right. She pivoted as quick as her feet would allow, brought her Mauler to bear and fired.

The blast impacted a Stalker’s shield barely a metre away before the now half-visible Brute crashed into Tar.

She was lifted off her feet and propelled backwards through another doorway where they both clattered to the floor.

Her Mauler blast had evidently damaged Stalker’s shield, because it fizzled out with a loud ‘pop’. In the dim, light Tar found the bright red beam of the Stalker’s single helmet lens a few inches from her face. Huge tombstone teeth gnashed at her as the Brute wrestled past Tar’s raised arms and got his hands around her throat. She spluttered as her windpipe instantly closed with the Brute crushing the life out of her. She knew she only had seconds to react as dark spots danced in front of her vision.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar 'Mdalak

Paxopolis Simulated Training Centre

Tar had tested this particular scenario before the class, to get a general idea of what was involved. But she knew the combatant placements were randomised, as well as each fighter’s individual skill level. There were thousands of different variables, which made the outcome wholly unpredictable.

She pointed to the Sangheili on the far left of her - the good soldier. “You will take the lead. The rest of you, form up behind him. Remember what i taught you.” This was a good opportunity to exercise the ideal recruit’s decision-making, while gauging how easily the rest followed his lead.

Combat had not yet even begun and already there was friction with the Major. He stopped where he was, straightening up his posture and looking down on Tar, literally and figuratively. “Do you not see our armor? I outrank Ryssa.” He objected, gesturing to the Sangheili Tar appointed to lead them. “I should lead this mission.”

Tar looked up at the Major from the sim start countdown on her wrist interface and growled. “Make no mistake - I am the team leader on this mission. In this combat zone, you belong to me.” Tar thumped his armor with the bottom of her fist before pointing to herself. “And if I say you’re to follow close behind, you do so.” She thumped his armor again before turning away. “Besides, if the highest rank always entered dangerous rooms first, we’d have a leaderless military.”

The two Sangeheili who had so far stayed clear of Tar’s attention let out a small laugh at this remark.

The “good soldier” himself, Ryssa, appeared briefly nervous, though he said nothing to question his superior’s orders. While he was praised for his ability to follow orders, he had never been given anything approaching command before.

Tar assumed a ready stance at the rear of the formation as they faced the sim room’s pilot light. This was so she could observe each of them in action, and offer corrections easily. She’d only given them basic close combat maneuvers to try; for this first sim she didn’t want to confuse them too much.

The lights in the massive room went completely out, and Tar knew this was the sim loading up. A few moments past in pitch black before dull red emergency lights flickered on, much closer to their heads than before.

They were in a dark, narrow corridor, with one of the entrances to the Command complex behind them. A few Sangheili and Human bodies littered the floor nearby; blood pooled around Tar’s feet.

Ahead of them, shadows flickered in the long, straight corridor and collected in a few doorways on either side. About fifty metres away, a slightly stronger light at the end of the corridor revealed a fork to the left and right.

Tar pulled her Mauler from it’s holster and brought it up, cradling it in both hands close to her face, sights just below her eye line. The recruits did roughly the same with their weapons. She quickly looked down and confirmed her energy sword and grenades had spawned in - she was ready for battle.

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar 'Mdalak

Paxopolis Simulated Training Centre

The combat sim control panel was of Human design, like most of the equipment in Paxopolis. This meant Tar needed several tries to get the settings correct; none of the preset scenarios tested the skills she was instilling in the recruits. She growled in frustration as even the smallest digit on her hand still entered the wrong enemy combatants.

Starting again, she skimmed past the human configurations like ‘Insurrectionist hijackers’ and ‘angry urban mob’ to access Covenant-era hostiles.

Sangheili Zealots <- No
Mgalekgolo Pair <- No
Yanme'e Swarm <- No
Jiralhanae Stalkers <- Perfect

She locked them in, selected the number and overall skill level, then checked the rest of the settings before confirming. Lights shining from the high ceiling switched from amber to green, another Human design which meant they were ready to begin. Satisfied the simulation was ready, she turned back to her recruits.

Four young Sangheili males stood awkwardly in the centre of the cavernous, empty sim room. They clutched their energy swords and stared suspiciously around as Tar walked quickly over to join them.

Among recruits to Paxopolis’ defensive garrison, there were few who were truly “green”, as the Humans would say. Among the UNSC, it was a secret facility, so they intended to insist upon soldiers with proven loyalty and ability. However, that did not mean that new recruits could simply be integrated right away. They still needed to be evaluated and trained to perform their duties. For some, it could be more difficult to train them than fresh recruits, as some had just enough experience to be stubborn.

As Tar drew closer, she could see the four Sangheili recruits were awaiting the start of the simulation with varying degrees of eagerness or irritation. The farthest to the left, from Tar’s perspective, was considered by some to be an ideal recruit. He strictly adhered to hierarchy and would obey any order from a superior to the letter, without question or hesitation. However, he also seemed to lack much creativity himself. He was actually the most experienced among the recruits, but not the highest rank.

The second in line was one who generally received little respect among his peers. Or at least, not from other Sangheili. He was often hesitant to fight, and though capable when motivated, he seemed to have little drive to improve himself.

The third was the one among them who had ascended to Major rank. He was quite tall and strong, even for a Sangheili, and he already had proven skill in combat, but he was far from humble. He had already openly shown disdain for this extra training he was being put through, and he seemed to be somewhat dismissive towards Tar.

The last in line was a recruit who was easy to forget about. He has no special experience nor accomplishments, though also no overt flaws. He tended to speak only when spoken to, and generally only said the bare minimum of what was required of him.

All four of them drew up to their full stature as Tar entered their space, as she’d noticed was usual for young males. She returned all of their stares to make sure they were listening before briefing them.

“Brute Stalkers have infiltrated the base. Their objectives are unknown, but they’ve infiltrated the Command room and deactivated our defenses. They’re contained within the Command complex, but the lights have been disabled and they’ll fight hard to break free. Our mission is to insert and kill or capture them all. Any questions?”

After a few moments of silence, the second Sangheili, the young warrior named Jurna, started to move his mandibles to speak, but the Major soon spoke over him, loudly and with no shortage of confidence. “I require nothing more than a target. We are not helpless younglings who have never gripped a plasma rifle. We shall slay these mongrels quickly and be done with this nonsense.”

Jurna did not continue his original thought, and neither of the others spoke up as well, for differing reasons. In any case, each recruit did seem to be ready to enter... They would be armed with simulations of their chosen weapons once the scenario had begun.

Tar chuckled at the Major’s arrogance. She moved closer, until she stood within an arm’s grasp. “Stalkers do not present targets - they are ghosts. Move too quickly, and they will tear you limb from limb. Split from your team, and they will slaughter you. Follow my instructions, stay in formation, and protect your unit, and you may all make it out alive. If you put your team at risk, I will kill you myself, am I understood?” She moved closer still, her head tilted slightly back to meet his gaze fully.

The Major just growled, exhibiting a string of body cues that spoke volumes about his displeasure.

Tar smiled and looked at the other recruits before hitting a button on her wrist interface. The amber lights above them began flashing.

“Prepare yourselves, the simulation starts in thirty seconds.”

Halo: Aegis Team

Tar 'Mdalak character sheet

Name: Tar ‘Mdalak

Rank: Swords of Sanghelios Commando

Species: Sangheili

Appearance:
Tar (right) practices CQC tactics with an energy lance

Skills:
Experience of piloting Banshees (Type-27 & Type-54) and Type-57 Phantoms
Covert infiltration
Sabotage
Close quarters combat
Military administration & combat training
Application of non-standard weaponry

Preferred Weapons/Equipment:
Type-1 Energy Sword for hand to hand combat
Type-52 Mauler for closing with targets
Type-57 Carbine for medium/long range engagements
Commando Harness (halopedia.org/Commando_harness) with propulsion unit
Type-2 Spike Grenades and Type-3 Firebombs, if available

Background:
Tar ‘Mdalak was born on Brissekh, a pristine frontier world, in the 2520s. Her father was Tarkr ‘Mdalakai, old swordsman and kaidon of the planet’s largest settlement.

Her homeworld was heavily tapped by the Covenant for fighters, with nearly all Tar’s numerous siblings conscripted into the military.

Tar was desperate to earn glory along with her brothers, but the Sangheili ranks wouldn’t have her. The place of females was to guard their home keep, and a lot of the Covenant traditionalists preferred it that way. So instead she served as the captain of the guard for her father’s keep.

Frustrated with the relatively small scope of her responsibilities, Tar put all her effort into modernising her troops. She expanded their training far beyond basic guard duties, incorporating asymmetric warfare tactics and mechanised detachments.

She also supplemented the traditional energy lances favoured by traditional guard units with the latest Covenant weaponry, like Carbines and Beam Rifles.

There were lots of opponents to her reformist vision, especially seeing as she was a female wielding significant influence over the old kaidon. This often resulted in skirmishes between would-be dissidents and Tar’s well equipped militia. It was in danger of boiling over into all out civil war until the Brutes attacked.

The Sangheili-Jiralhanae war hit Brissekh completely by surprise. None of the Keeps received warning of the raid until Brute RCS class cruiser was in low orbit. Before any of the Keeps could react, they’d destroyed the space port and bastion compounds before deploying two companies of heavy infantry to kill as many citizens as they could find.

With the distress signal sent, Tar deployed her troops to the large city outside the Keep. With everyone behind the fortifications, maybe they could hold out until friendly ships arrived.

However, her father wasn’t content to cower behind walls while Sangheili across Brissekh were slaughtered. Despite Tar’s protest, he struck out for the landing zone with his retinue, seeking a duel with the War Chieftain. They found each other, but survivors say Tarkr ‘Mdalakai was separated from his bodyguards during the fight and captured by the enemy.

When Tar found out her father had been imprisoned, a much worse fate than death for Sangheili, she went mad with rage. Abandoning her position near the gates of the Keep, she plowed into the marauding Brute hordes. Her vigorous training and agility let her use the Brute numbers against them, with the weight of bodies allowing her to get in close and butcher them.

When her Energy Sword expired from overuse, she took Maulers and Spike Grenades from eviscerated Brutes and pushed forward. Whipped into a frenzy by their commander’s raw fury, her troops set upon the Brutes with a cruel precision. The narrow streets of Brissekh’s main city ran with Jiralhanae blood.

Such was the ferocity of the Sangheili counter attack that the landing party never even reached the gates. And when a nearby Swords of Sanghelios battle cruiser arrived to help, the Brutes fled the system, taking Kaidon ‘Mdalakai with them.

Upon meeting the rescue ship’s commanders, Tar immediately invoked the right of release, an intention to rescue her father from a shameful life of capture. In the spirit of Thel 'Vadam’s liberalisation of the Swords military, the cruiser’s captain granted her passage and enlistment aboard.

The cruiser gave chase to the Brute ship, but it got away. They searched for the aggressors, but the trail went cold. Tar vowed never to give up, but accepted that she needed to contribute.

She quickly fell in with a squad of Brute hunters that were formerly part of the Silent Shadow division of Covenant crack troops. They were operating from the battle cruiser and had learned of Tar’s plight. When they realised her ability in combat, they offered her a place on missions slaughtering any Jiralhanae they could find. Tar gained a reputation for exceptional cruelty when it came to Brutes, often appearing to exact personal revenge on each combatant.

It took three long years of searching before Tar got a solid lead. Some of the Brutes they’d interrogated had heard a rumor Sangheili kaidons were being held on Brute ships near a Forerunner construct known as Sarcophagus. Her squad tried to convince her the intel was shaky at best, but Tar didn’t care.

She parted ways with Silent Shadow and set out on her own. Finding passage aboard a military vessel, she gained access to the Sangheili-Human facilities on Sarcophagus by joining the colony’s defensive contingent.

However, despite searching for months, Tar could find no trace of the Brute cruiser. To make matters worse, she couldn’t stray far from her unit for fear of being tried as a deserter. Many of the assignments on Sarcophagus were for life, but Tar certainly wasn’t planning on staying that long if she could help it.